A Multimedia Message Service (MMS) utilized by a mobile communication terminal is a service more advanced than an existing Short Message Service (SMS). The MMS facilitates the sending/receiving of multimedia messages between mobile communication terminals using a wireless Internet data transfer service, and/or the sending/receiving of email messages via an Internet network in the mobile communication terminal.
Recently, utilization of the MMS has increased in comparison with the text-based SMS. Notably, the SMS can only send/receive characters and numerals, while the MMS can send/receive various types of data, such as moving images, pictures and sounds, for example.
Generally, when a multimedia message is sent by a sending-side mobile communication terminal, the message is first sent to a Multimedia Message Service Center (MMSC). The MMSC then sends a notification message for notifying arrival of the multimedia message to a receiving-side mobile communication terminal. A user of the receiving-side mobile communication terminal can then display the multimedia message after completing a download of various media files included in the multimedia message sent from the sending-side mobile communication terminal.
However, if a space for storing the downloaded media files does not exist in the mobile communication terminal, the multimedia message can not be displayed until previously-stored media files are deleted. Additionally, because the multimedia message can be displayed only after completing the download of the media files, a user of the mobile communication terminal must undesirably wait a period of time prior to viewing the multimedia message.